How can Kingdom Hearts appeal more to mainstream Disney fans?

[SuperMillionaire]

Video game music should be made for video games, previously existing music with video games should be kept to youtube amv's

I think SE needs to get more popular western artists to do ending songs.

That's fine, but it doesn't address the assertion both nuke and I share. I don't really care who sings the theme song. The music should be made for the game. That's not to say its impossible to make a soundtrack from existing songs (it certainly works for many movies), but when a game like Final Fantasy XIII which presents a whole conceptualized world accompanied by an otherwise completely original soundtrack, it's a bit odd to just pick a song which was written without that world and atmosphere in mind. Certainly, the two may match well enough, but I hold that a cooperative effort to create an original piece would be more effective.

Yes, that's also true too. They should do that more often too.

[blackmage_nuke]

That is what theyve been doing for the past 12 final fantasies up until now...

EDIT: I forgot this thread was meant to be about Kingdom hearts, The use of a simple and clean never really made sense to me. I liked the song but the lyrics didnt match up to the game, hikari made more sense though

[SuperMillionaire]

I meant with more western artists.

[blackmage_nuke]

Well the problem is most musical artists write songs for themselves, they dont write music to express emotions, moods and feelings they are told to express. It requires a specific skill and style of writing music to be able to project an atmosphere into a game without being intrusive which is completely different to writing a song for people to listen to on the radio. Nationality doesn't come into it.

Unless by artists you really meant preformers rather than composers which really depends on the feel that the original composer was going for.

[SuperMillionaire]

True, I meant both performers and songwriters/composers.

And "Passion/Sanctuary" ties more into KH2 than the previous songs.

[Ouch!]

True, I meant both performers and songwriters/composers.

And "Passion/Sanctuary" ties more into KH2 than the previous songs.

"Sanctuary" made a bit more sense lyrically, but it was a pretty awful localization of "Passion." There are far too many instances of holding out a single syllable over multiple beats that sounds forced and awkward. They could have done a better job with it, I think.

I never thought "Simple and Clean" was poorly matched with the original Kingdom Hearts, though. The refrain was perfectly appropriate. The other verses, perhaps a little less so.

[SuperMillionaire]

Yes the chorus of "Simple and Clean" did tie in with the first KH, but the verses were only loosely related.

And even though "Passion" came out first, it was actually "Sanctuary" that was written first.

[Ouch!]

Yes the chorus of "Simple and Clean" did tie in with the first KH, but the verses were only loosely related.

And even though "Passion" came out first, it was actually "Sanctuary" that was written first.

If that's the case, I'm really not sure what their excuse is then.

[SuperMillionaire]

Yeah, they should start picking out more western artists.

[x~Agita~x]

I love both Passion and Sanctuary, and whether or not I like Sanctuary's lyrics (not a close translation at all...) it is a very good vocal match. Listening to the two for me is almost completely interchangeable, and this is coming from a person who is usually all like, 'If it's the Japanese version, then it is BETTER!'

[SuperMillionaire]

I love both Passion and Sanctuary, and whether or not I like Sanctuary's lyrics (not a close translation at all...) it is a very good vocal match. Listening to the two for me is almost completely interchangeable, and this is coming from a person who is usually all like, 'If it's the Japanese version, then it is BETTER!'

Well now, that's interesting. I like both too, but for me, it's the English version that I like better (because I can't understand Japanese).

[SuperMillionaire]

It's been a while since we posted in this thread, but since it's still near the top of the page, I thought I would post in here again; I just found something interesting about the relationship between Kingdom Hearts and the rest of Disney, and I hear that this is also the case in Japan:

What's the deal with Kingdom Hearts and Disney?

[Rostum]

Yeah that article says a whole lot of nothing and ends with hopes of High School Musical and Hannah Montana, which is just awful. *pukes*

[Roogle]

Yes, the article is only speculation of the relationship between Square Enix and Disney.

I have heard the following:

Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II, the Kingdom Hearts media and all respective logos, characters, artwork, stories, information, names, and other elements associated thereto are the sole and exclusive property of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd., The Walt Disney Company, as well as their subsidiaries and affiliated companies.

This means that Square Enix and Disney retain rights to the properties meaning that any merchandise would run into a licensing issue unless the companies worked together to produce it. Maybe it is too much of a hassle to have a third party produce the product and have both companies license and approve it? The video game merchandise market is not very large right now.

[Ouch!]

Yeah, they should start picking out more western artists.

Utada Hikaru is as much a western artist as she is a Japanese artist. She was born and raised in the United States. She's fluently bilingual and releases different albums (with different songs, not just translations) in the United States and Japan. She puts out more albums in Japan because she's more popular there.